Former Olympian Sambiao Basanung scouted him when he was on his sixth grade and brought him to Manila in 1949 to train for the 1954 Asian Games.

[4] Sailani's District Supervisor Julio Barnes and Tila Rasul, who is the father of former Senator Santanina Rasul also encouraged Sailani in his swimming career pursuit at a time when he had already earned a reputation in Mindanao as a "star swimmer and record breaker".

In December 1953, he broke the record for the 400 meter race two times consecutively and became the first Filipino to swim in that distance in less than five minutes.

[4] Sailani became the first Muslim Filipino athlete to be part of the Philippine delegation to the Asian Games at age 17 making his debut to the competition at the 1954 edition.

[4] Sailani, while studying at the University of Santo Tomas as a high school student, had three girlfriends in sequence.

He met Aurora Mendoza, who would be later his wife, while working with Manolo Elizalde, one of the sponsors of his swimming stints along with Senator Ambrosio Padilla.